234 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Halliday, Thomas C, Bed Hall, Buratou, Horley, Surrey 



Hardwick, Alfred, Hangleton Portalade 



Kiug, Stephen, Old Hayward, Hungerford 



Moor, James. 11, Upper Berkeley-st., Portman-sq., London 



Kadford, H. B., Stanton House, Burton-on-Trent 



Wedgwood, George Arthur, Batt'a Farm, Warlingham, 



Croydon. 



Finances. — Mr. Barnett, Chairman of the Finance 

 Committee, presented the report, from which it ap- 

 peared that the current cash balance in the hands of the 

 bankers was .£-'2,487 7s. 8d., and at Canterbury 

 ^3,012 13s. lOd. The Secretary's receipts during the 

 past month were examined and found correct. 



General Leeds Committee. — The President 

 read the report recommending a visit to the trial- 

 grounds, a spot selected for the show-yard by a deputa- 

 tion from the Council. It was unanimously resolved 

 that the name of J. Dent Dent, M.P., be added to the 

 list of the Committee. It was resolved that Mr. Man- 

 ning be appointed contractor for the Leeds show-yard. 

 The seal of the Society was affixed to the agreement, 

 which had been already signed and sealed by the Mayor 

 of Leeds. On the motion of Mr. Braudreth Gibbs, it 

 was resolved, " That the Press be allowed catalogues 

 of implements as soon as the trial-yard is open ; these 

 to be delivered on the representative producing his press 

 order from the Secretary." At the request of the 

 Chairman of the Journal Committee, the consideration 

 of Mr. Brandreth Gibb's motion, " that in order to 

 avoid the complaints which are annually made as to the 

 late period at which the Reports on the Implements ex- 



hibited at the Society's country meetings are published, 

 in future, the report, as soon as ready, shall be set up in 

 the type in which it will eventually appear in the Jour- 

 nal, and that copies of it be at once issued (under the 

 usual regulations) to the Exhibitors, and to the agricul- 

 tural newspapers which are in the habit of publishing 

 the ordinary proceedings of the Society," was postponed 

 until the next meeting of Council. 



The following list of prizes for Essays and Reports 

 for 1861 was agreed to : 



I. Special Prize of 50', offered by the President, the 

 Earl of Powis, for the best Report on the Im- 

 provement in the Farming of Yorkshire, since the 

 last report in Vol. IX. of the Journal. 

 II. 50i. for the best Report on the Farming of Hamp- 

 shire. 



III. lOl. for the best Report on the results of Drainage 



at different depths on different soils, as tested by 

 the wet season of 1860, including the effect of 

 laying down drained land flat or in ridges. 



IV. 10!. for the best Essay on the best mode of Win- 



tering Dairy Cattle. 

 V. lOl. for the best Essay on the general principles and 



results involved in the Cross Breeding of Cattle. 

 VI. lOZ. for the best Essay ou the Rearing of Calves. 



VII. IQl. for the beat Essay on the best mode of Har- 



vesting and Thrashing Corn. 



VIII. lOl. for any other agricultural subject. 



The usual vacation was then granted to the Secretary 

 and Clerks of the Society, and the Council adjourned 

 over the autumn recess to Wednesday, November 7. 



THE LEADING FEATURES OF THE 'IMPLEMENT DEPARTMENT 

 OF THE CANTERBURY SHOW. 



The happiest of unions has been that between Agri- 

 culture and Engineering. Not without jars, however, 

 of which more hereafter, has it been ; but still the alli- 

 ance has been productive of results as striking as they 

 have been beneficial. Those who are old enough to 

 remember, and who had the good fortune to be pre- 

 sent, at the earliest of the Royal Society's Shows, and 

 who walked this week through the crowded show-sheds 

 of the Canterbury Meeting, will have had striking evi- 

 dence of this. At first neither Agriculture nor Engi- 

 neering were greatly ambitious of helping each other, 

 or confident as to how the one could lielp the other. 

 Of the two, doubtless. Agriculture was perhaps the 

 readiest to find fault, and to have but a poor idea of 

 what Engineering could do for her ; while, on the other 

 hand, Engineering had little notion how much her 

 assistance was really needed, and in what manner it 

 could best be given. But time cleared away the mists 

 and clouds which hung over the path of progress, and 

 in due course each saw how much the one would be 

 benefited by the other ; the far-seeing friends of Agri- 

 culture proijhesyiug wondrous results, and announcing 

 startling innovations — haughtily sneered at, at first — 

 as the gift of Engineering to her. Thus plodded the 

 couple wai'ily on, not at all times quietly forsooth, like 

 coupled hounds at times, to spcalc truly — one pulling 

 one way, one the other ; but somehow, with all their 

 cross-purposes and side-pullingSj progressing forwards 

 at a really satisfactory rate. 



It is a remarkable featm-e connected with agriculture 

 that it possesses no history : detached facts doubtless 

 are here and there to be met with, but continuous phi- 

 losophically connected details there are little or none, 

 to afford light as to the real progress of any of its de- 

 partments, cultural or implemental. Did these mate- 



rials exist, nothing would be more interesting than to 

 trace the gradual improvements made in agricultural 

 mechanism — where, and by whom. But these unfor- 

 tunately do not exist sufficiently detailed to trace this 

 progress satisfactorily. At best we have but a dry list 

 of names and machines ; but of the various difficulties 

 which must of necessity have encountered the inventors 

 we have no record. Stages of progress, therefore, such 

 as can be traced in the history of the steam-engine, 

 cannot be traced in like manner in connexion with the 

 mechanism of agriculture. We hear only of results, 

 and barely at times of these ; but history is silent as to 

 the way these are worked out, and of the nature of the 

 difficulties by which they wore surrounded. In look- 

 ing back, then, at the last half century — a period the 

 most prolific in real practical projects — we have to con- 

 tent ourselves with the vaguest of information, and the 

 slenderest of details. We can but say that engineering 

 has done great things for agriculture : at first, begin- 

 ning in a very doubtful and feeble way, she proffered 

 her .services to drive here and there a thrashing-machine 

 in some far off northern district ; then, emboldened by 

 success, she began to cut the roots and the hay, and to 

 crush the corn and the cake ; and, getting more am- 

 bitious with each successive triumph, she walked boldly j 

 into the field, and now threatens to supplant the plough I 

 by the steam cultivator. We refer in these points to ' 

 the aid which steam has given to agriculture through 

 the medium of engineering ; but in other, perhaps less 

 ambitious and daring, but not less useful ways, lias her 

 aid been remarkable. The implements of the field, and 

 the machines of the steading, have all received in turn 

 a portion of her zealous care, and have been stamped 

 with the impress of Jier mechanical genius. At first 

 she found the machines and implements of the farm 



